In the history of the Edmonton Oilers, we have seen some very strong minor league teams. I have decided to look at one team per decade since we have some time in mid-summer. Tomorrow I will look at the 2001-02 Hamilton Bulldogs and the 2013-14 Oklahoma City Barons.

1981-82 WICHITA WIND (BEST OF THE 80S)

D Charlie Huddy. 1,017 regular-season games, 183 playoff games and he hung around for all five Stanleys. You would have loved him: Rugged, smart, effective.

G Andy Moog. Played in 713 regular-season games, 132 more in the playoffs, and won three Stanley’s with Edmonton. A seventh-round pick in 1980, he was a fabulous goalie.

F Walt Poddubny. He played 468 NHL games, but only four for the Oilers. Effective, and had a few terrific offensive seasons.

C Marc Habscheid. He played in 345 NHL games although only three for this Wind club (all in the playoffs). I always liked him, but the team was loaded at the position.

D Don Jackson. He made it into 311 NHL games, won two Stanley’s and was a fearsome fellow. I always liked to see him on the ice, between Jackson and Semenko everything had a way of getting calm in a hurry.

D John Blum. He played 250 NHL games, only nine as an Oiler. He was a tough customer, I remember him best as a Boston Bruin.

C Tom Roulston. He played in 195 NHL games, and is one of the few Oilers of that era to play a bunch of playoff games (21) for the Oilers without winning a Stanley.

1992-93 CAPE BRETON OILERS (BEST OF THE 90S)

R Kirk Maltby. He payed in 1,072 NHL games and another 169 in the playoffs—while taking part in all four of the Detroit Red Wings modern Stanley’s. I assume you know his style, he was a very famous player.

C Scott Thornton. He played in 941 NHL games and 79 in the playoffs. A painful trade saw him arrive in Edmonton (Fuhr, Anderson to the Leafs) and he was a role player until being dealt to the Montreal Canadiens.

C Shaun Van Allen. He played 794 NHL games and another 61 in the playoffs—mostly for Ottawa. He was perceived as being a draft failure for a long time, but broke through seven years after he was chosen.

L Shjon Podein. He played in 699 NHL games and another 127 in the playoffs. Rugged checker was part of two famous teams, the Flyers of the mid-90s and the Avalanche a little later. Won Stanley in 2001.

R Steven Rice. He played 329 NHL games and two in the playoffs for the New York Rangers. This is a painful name in Oilers history—he was partial payment for Mark Messier.

D Francois Leroux. He played in 249 NHL games and 33 in the playoffs. I remember chatting with Rod Phillips and John Short about him as a young player. The feeling was that with his size (6.06, 247) he could be effective if he could catch you. They were right.

C Peter White. He played in 220 NHL games and 19 in the playoffs. White was a bit of an NHL tweener, but an outstanding AHL player.

R Roman Oksiuta. He played in 153 NHL games and 10 in the playoffs. If you want to know what kind of player he was, put skates on your fridge.

L Vladimir Vujtek. He played in 110 NHL games and was an effective junior and minor league player. He was one of the early draft picks to come over and play, Montreal traded him to Edmonton in the ill-fated Vincent Damphousse deal.

Question: Of these two teams (if you are old enough) which one would you consider the better club? I have heard a few stories about that Wichita team, and the 80-81 team too. I think it must have been a funhouse on and off the ice. If you remember the style of hockey played in those days, and check out the PIMs, it is possible to envision Slap Shot pretty much every game they played. How on earth a skill guy could have climbed out of those leagues is beyond me.

Loved the ‘”81 series against the habs. Oilers up 2 games to 0 in a best of 5. I was so sure that the Oilers could not win 3 straight against the mighty habs I announced to the staff room that I would give 10 to 1 odds that the Oilers would lose. Stupid stupid. 3rd period gretz feeds a perfect pass to Kurri in all alone and game over. Lesson learned: never discount the Oilers and never never offer 10 to 1 odds.

Even as a Londoner, I had no idea that London owns the NHL rights to “Knights”, not just the CHL rights.

They own the rights in Canada. So Vegas could operate in the U.S. under that name but could not in our country. That means they couldn’t sell a single jersey here or operate a business here by playing an NHL game in a Canadian arena. Weird I didn’t know that either and I also live here.

alberta bound edmonton:
Loved the ‘”81 series against the habs. Oilers up 2 games to 0 in a best of 5. I was so sure that the Oilers could not win 3 straight against the mighty habs I announced to the staff room that I would give 10 to 1 odds that the Oilers would lose. Stupid stupid. 3rd period gretz feeds a perfect pass to Kurri in all alone and game over. Lesson learned: never discount the Oilers and never never offer 10 to 1 odds.

I can’t really give an unbiased opinion to this question, because I never saw Wichita play a single game, and I watched the 92-93 CB Oilers from training camp to Calder cup champs. They were a really good team and, If i recall correctly benefited from the big Oilers missing the playoffs that year. Their calder cup run was great to watch and every player on that team seemed to step it up every series. Except one. There was a guy on that team named Bill MacDougall. He didnt have much of an NHL career, but he was on fire from game one and didnt take his foot off the gas for that playoff run. Went 26-26-52. In 16 games. Look it up. Podein played great, Van Allen was clutch that year, and Leroux beat the stuffing out of anyone who wanted a turn, but I’ll always remember Billy MacDougall getting a point almost every period.

Ckerr:
I can’t really give an unbiased opinion to this question, because I never saw Wichita play a single game, and I watched the 92-93 CB Oilers from training camp to Calder cup champs.They were a really good team and, If i recall correctly benefited from the big Oilers missing the playoffs that year.Their calder cup run was great to watch and every player on that team seemed to step it up every series.Except one.There was a guy on that team named Bill MacDougall.He didnt have much of an NHL career, but he was on fire from game one and didnt take his foot off the gas for that playoff run.Went 26-26-52.In 16 games.Look it up.Podein played great, Van Allen was clutch that year, and Leroux beat the stuffing out of anyone who wanted a turn, but I’ll always remember Billy MacDougall getting a point almost every period.

The ’82 Wichita Wind played a playoff game at the Coliseum. That was the year Oilers got knocked out early by the Kings, & there was still an appetite for playoff hockey in this town so in blew the Wind. Andy Moog was in net for them after losing his NHL job to Grant Fuhr that season, & was a huge crowd favourite in that game & many others over the years. In front of a crowd of 14,000 the Wind fell 3-1 to Indianapolis Checkers in that game & were eliminated shortly thereafter.

Bruce McCurdy:
The ’82 Wichita Wind played a playoff game at the Coliseum. That was the year Oilers got knocked out early by the Kings, & there was still an appetite for playoff hockey in this town so in blew the Wind. Andy Moog was in net for them after losing his NHL job to Grant Fuhr that season, & was a huge crowd favourite in that game & many others over the years. In front of a crowd of 14,000 the Wind fell 3-1 to Indianapolis Checkers in that game & were eliminated shortly thereafter.

While at University in Halifax I saw every player listed on the Cape Breton Oilers play live. Maltby was an instant success with his speed and toughness, Oksiuta was slow (and had bad teeth) but could score from the slot and Van Allen could pass (but was also slow). There were others – Dan Currie looked good for a few seasons, Bill McDougal was good for a half season and magical for one playoff, Craig Fisher was OK one season then terrible the next. Norm Foster was the best defenceman, I thought Rice would make it…physical. Very much a mixed bag with little to show for it with the big club.

Caribbeerman:
While at University in Halifax I saw every player listed on the Cape Breton Oilers play live. Maltby was an instant success with his speed and toughness, Oksiuta was slow (and had bad teeth) but could score from the slot and Van Allen could pass (but was also slow). There were others – Dan Currie looked good for a few seasons, Bill McDougal was good for a half season and magical for one playoff, Craig Fisher was OK one season then terrible the next. Norm Foster was the best defenceman, I thought Rice would make it…physical. Very much a mixed bag with little to show for it with the big club.

Awesome stuff, thanks for sharing it. Agree on the payoff for the big team, feel as though the Wichita team gave Edmonton two impact players (so consider it the better team).

I agree. I had actually started to build a weighted matrix that factored in draft position, games played and subsets of player grades (top lime forward, top pairing d, etc).

Never managed to finish it but I should dig it back up and try now that I’m underemployed. Just always wanted a more accurate format to measure success of every team by. Concept is not hard only real subjective part is tweaking weight ratios and going through each draft class and manually grading players caliber.

Water Fire:
I am not a fan of GP as a measure of success in terms of quality. I recognize measures are hard and a long career refers to a successful NHL player which is a feat.

You bet! I will tell you that others have tried, and the relationship between GP and success jives with other attempts (same results). That said, weighting quality is a grand idea and I would love to see your results.